I used to really enjoy New Year’s Eve. My family would spend the evening with three or four other families that were friends of ours. It was great. There were at least 15 kids all fairly close in age. We’d have a snowball fight, play games, eat lots of snacks, and then gather around the TV for the epic countdown to midnight. There’s just something fun and thrilling about staying up until midnight when you’re a kid.

You’re awake in one day, and then in one second, you’re awake in a new day. It makes sense that so many people would choose New Years to make a resolution. In one second, the calendar, and the clock rolls over and everyone gets a fresh start. But in my many years, I have found that if there is something worth doing, then it is worth doing now.

There are a few things that stand out when I think of things I chose to do as a life change. I chose to give up sugar and fast food for a year. I didn’t choose to start at New Years, I chose to start the day after my birthday because – you know – can’t say “no” to birthday cake. But for a full year, I stuck with it. I also chose to write a new picture book manuscript each month. I started that goal in August, and I stuck with it until I landed my agent.

The key to starting a new routine successfully is not in the day you start, but in the plan and the routine you set for yourself. Whatever your goal is, make sure you can set yourself up for success by making a plan and sticking to it. For example, when I started this blog, I told myself to “add to it regularly,” but I never defined what “regularly” meant. So now, I am making sure to write a new post every Sunday. And while my resolution is close to New Years, it has nothing to do with that and everything to do with the fact that I realized I needed a better plan to reach my goals.

So, if you have plans for a New Year’s resolution, I encourage you to start now.